Not only does Ricciolo confidently claim the S9 will be launched earlier in the year, but he adds it will indeed arrive with a dual-lens camera and some "new tricks ala iPhone X", which we assume relates to facial recognition technology.

However, it’s worth remembering that the Galaxy S8 actually had a slightly later launch than normal. It wasn’t unveiled until April this year because the Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8995 chips took longer to develop, which pushed the S8 launch back. So if the Galaxy S9 is launched "earlier" it will effectively put Samsung’s release schedule back on track.

As for when that may be is still up in the air, we should get a clearer idea when details about the Snapdragon 845 chip are announced at the Snapdragon forum in December. The speculator within us would suggest an MWC reveal, as it takes place in February and Samsung has launched phones there before, otherwise we're looking at an early-March reveal.